Loose Election Commission Allows Ineligible Candidate into Race

The MCEC partially affirmed Alexander’s case, recognizing that the other candidate submitted signatures from people that did not reside in the district or who provided fictitious, non-existent addresses.

Milwaukee—The Milwaukee County Election Commission (MCEC) deliberated in closed session for several hours Tuesday after Deanna Alexander brought a challenge that the second 18th district candidate seeking election to the County Board in April’s Election did not fulfill the necessary filing requirements.

The MCEC partially affirmed Alexander’s case, recognizing that the other candidate submitted signatures from people that did not reside in the district or who provided fictitious, non-existent addresses.

However, when Alexander showed that the other candidate had put the wrong election date on nomination papers, had circulated papers with two different district numbers on them, and had failed to file a current Declaration of Candidacy or a signed and current Campaign Registration Statement by the filing deadline, the Election Commission chose the most loose and lenient possible interpretations of the law and dismissed the challenge.

The Election Commission also ignored evidence that someone in the Election Director’s office had altered original documents just before the hearing.

“Under the guidance of the Government Accountability Board, the Milwaukee County Election Commission has made it clear that it sees its role as allowing as many people on the ballot as possible, rather than to properly maintain the integrity of the election process by following both the intent and the letter of the law,” said Alexander.

100% of Alexander’s signatures were found true, valid and correct, while the other candidate had false and erroneous filings and barely made it onto the ballot.

“The public should be furious that the Election Commission set a high standard for one candidate and lowered the bar for the other,” said Alexander.